The Caribbean Baseball Season brings together the best of the winter baseball leagues playing in the Caribbean. Now for the 2025 Caribbean Series, the tournament that ends with a playoff series among the best teams, Japan will be sending a representation. Baseball is a popular sport in Japan. The 2025 Caribbean Series is scheduled to take place in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.

Japan is not any invited team. Japan has won the World Baseball Classic (WBC) three times in 2006, 2009 and 2023. The WBC is the main international baseball championship.

Now in what is described as an effort to promote growth and innovation, the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC) has announced the inclusion of Japan’s Japan Breeze team as an invited participant in the upcoming 2025 Caribbean Series, set for the Nido de Aguilas Stadium in Mexicali, Mexico from 31 January to 7 February 2025.

The Caribbean Series has a first round of two games per day to be followed by a round-robin, semifinal round and the grand final on 7 February 2024.

It was also announced that a tour of the Mexicali 2025 Caribbean Series trophy will be held soon through several Mexican cities, with a schedule to be announced later to promote Mexican attendance to the event.

Voting in the assembly in Mexico was host Carlos Manrique for the ARCO Mexican Pacific League; Juan Antonio Flores Galarza for the Roberto Clemente Professional Baseball League of Puerto Rico; Vitelio Mejía for the Dominican Professional Baseball League and Giuseppe Palmisano for the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Also present were Antonio José Herrera, executive secretary of the CBPC, a delegation representing Japanese Breeze and Yamil Benítez, president of the Confederation of Professional Caribbean Baseball Players, among others.

Speaking for Erwin Miyasaka, cofounder of the Mexican league, Jose Puello Herrera explained that the Japanese are looking forward to competing against the best teams from the Caribbean and showcasing Japanese baseball to a wider audience. He said that Erwin Miyasaka has stated that participating in the Caribbean Series is a “dream come true” for the Japanese team.

The Dominican Republic has won the most Caribbean Series championships (22), with Tigres del Licey being the most successful team in the tournament’s history. The series has been won by 29 teams from seven different countries. Only two teams have won the tournament two years in a row, the most recent being Criollos de Caguas from Puerto Rico in 2017 and 2018.

The regular members of the (CBPC) and participants in the Caribbean Series are the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. In past years, other teams have played in the Caribbean Series — Colombia, Cuba, Curacao, Nicaragua and Panama.

Read more in Spanish:
Serie del Caribe